Beyond the platform
The Platform.For-Pgh political platform is augmented with extras. Extras Pittsburgh's strengths and Pittsburgh's promise Pittsburgh's strengths and Pittsburgh's promise include many ideas and opinions from others. Together, we ponder bigger questions, such as "Where are we?" and, "Where do we want to go?" Venting and Rants Venting happens as people gather and talk about Pittsburgh. We need to blow off steam. Angry and upset people fill our neighborhoods. Our stories are important. The rants part of the Platform.For-Pgh.org is devoted to rambling rants, personal stories, and testimonials. Campaign Content and Messages Campaign messages need to come into focus. Certain points need to be crafted, fine-tuned, positioned in conversations, documented, supported with facts, justified with financial data, and delivered into the marketplace of ideas. Advertising, marketing, public relations and earned media elements are all vital elements to any successful campaign, but they are not necessarily platform planks. The campaign and platform are going to interact and blend together. But within the Wiki, we need to put the salesmanship and hype under the campaign sections. Would, Could and Should One of my father's favorite lessons dealt with excuses and his quote was: "Would-a, could-a and should-a don't mean squat." Being a family-friendly Wiki, I did change the last word to squat. But these concepts do have valid implications in our campaign. If had had been mayor, what would I have done? What could I have done? What should we have done? An example: * On October 25, 2005, Mayor Tom Murphy vetoed the early-bird discount that could have encouraged taxpayers to pay city taxes sooner, save a percentage on the payement, and help the city's dire cash-flow situation. City council passed the measure with one negative vote from Sala Udin. If I was Mayor, I would NOT have issued a veto. There are scores of other actions that should have been done, that could have been done and that I would have done. See for yourself in the would, could and should section. Then plug in your own comments as to what we really would, could and should have done. Trends Certain themes and trends can swirl within a city and region as well as within a campaign and platform. Linking the dots together can create interesting illustrations. One of the biggest trends in the city is to do too little too late. Another trend is the one-time fix or what I call, band-aid approach. For the summer of 2004, Elsie Hillman and Dr. Bill Truehart of the Pittsburgh Foundation put some money on the table, raised other funds and saved our summer. They put a band-aid upon a dozen swim pools that were already held together by a band-aid. By June, 2004, I spoke out to say that the newest band-aid on the old band-aid might have been pasted to a corpse. The body was dead. Then in October 2004, the I.C.A. plan reveals a 2006 budget that proved $0 to Citiparks. Another trend is to move away from democracy and concentrate powers in authories. Quotes The quote area in our Wiki makes a container for interesting remarks. Mind Food Food for thought and all the number crunching goes into the section called Mind Food. The number of voters, votes, party members and trends need to be explored and understood. Press Releases * Building * Delivered